On the iPad, iOS 11 and iOS 12 merge the Control Center with the App Switcher as part of an overhauled interface that's meant to put more of a focus on multitasking. The update also adds new ways to access the App Switcher and it brings new, enhanced app switching functionality.
Accessing the App Switcher
On the Home screen, simply swipe up and hold to bring up the App Switcher.
Within an app, swipe up to bring up the dock and continue the swipe further to access the App Switcher.
Alternatively, the App Switcher can still be accessed by a double press on the Home button on iPads with a Home button.
The new App Switcher displays the Control Center options on the right side of the screen, the dock at the bottom of the screen, and your most recently used apps in a tiled view with large icons so you can see exactly what's open. Swipe left and right to see all of the apps you have open and tap to choose one.
When you open two apps at once using multitasking functionality, the app arrangements are preserved in the App Switcher, so you can quickly switch between multiple multitasking windows with a simple swipe and tap.
Closing Apps
There's normally no need to close apps on iOS because Apple manages the device's power needs and keeps apps from using resources when not in use, but if you need to close an app, here's how:
Bring up the App Switcher.
Swipe upwards on any app to close it.
As mentioned earlier, the App Switcher is linked to the Control Center. You can change what's displayed in the Control Center portion of the App Switcher by going to Settings --> Control Center --> Customize Controls.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo this afternoon published a new research note for investors where he speculates about what Apple might do in future iPhones regarding Touch ID and Face ID. Investors, like many of us, are curious whether Apple plans to eliminate Touch ID in favor of Face ID, embrace a dual biometric solution, or swap back to Touch ID once a viable under display solution is available.
Kuo believes Apple's future plans will hinge on whether or not Face ID is well received by the public.
A key question on the minds of many investors is whether the new iPhone models to be launched in 2018 will support Touch ID (fingerprint recognition). We believe the key factors are: (1) whether or not Face ID (facial recognition) of iPhone X provide a positive user experience; and (2) the technical issues that Apple (US) will have to address with an under-display fingerprint solution. We believe Apple will replace the existing Home button-based Touch ID with the under-display solution for higher screen-to-body ratios, if it decides to bring back Touch ID.
Should Face ID be well received by consumers who purchase the iPhone X, Kuo believes there's a higher likelihood 2018 iPhone models will adopt the TrueDepth Camera and support Face ID.
Should Apple choose to return to Touch ID as either a dual biometric solution or a Face ID replacement should Face ID not fare well, Kuo believes any forthcoming Touch ID option will be built under the iPhone's display. 3D Touch, though, will make it challenging for Apple to develop an under-display solution.
This is because the iPhone's 3D Touch module makes the entire panel module even thicker, and could potentially undermine the scan-through performance of the under-display solution. If Face ID fails to impress consumers, Apple may turn its focus to the development of under-display solution. However, even if that happens, Apple will still have to find ways to overcome the aforementioned technical issue.
If Face ID does indeed go over well with consumers and makes its way into additional iOS devices in 2018, Kuo believes Apple's Android competitors will make an effort to speed up facial recognition development, boosting manufacturers who supply facial recognition components.
Face ID will be in the hands of consumers this November, following the launch of the iPhone X. As Face ID is a new biometric system, there have been a lot of questions and doubts about privacy, security, and functionality, but Apple's Craig Federighi has attempted to alleviate the uncertainty with a series of interviews.
In a recent discussion with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, Federighi said that once Face ID is in the hands of consumers, all of that uncertainty will just "melt away." The feature "just works," he says. "You don't even have to think about it."
iOS 11 brings systemwide drag and drop to iPad, providing users with a quick way to move text, images, files, and more from one app to another.
Over the past few days, leading up to today's launch of iOS 11, a number of iPad apps have been updated to support the functionality.
Todoist
You can now drag text messages, URLs, emails, images, PDFs, files, and more into Todoist, a popular task management app for iOS.
Dropping in a project, label, or filter view will create a new task.
Dropping in the comment screen will start a new comment pre-populated with the relevant information.
Dropping in the Quick Add button will start a new task pre-populated with the relevant information.
Todoist is free on the App Store [Direct Link] with the option to upgrade to Todoist Premium for $28.99 per year.
Zipped
Eytan Schulman, a three-time WWDC Scholarship winner, is releasing a modern archiving utility called Zipped with drag and drop support.
iPad users can simply drag and drop files onto Zipped's cardboard box icon to zip/compress or unzip/uncompress them.
Quickly open a ZIP file and selectively share or save the contents.
Files can be named manually or automatically.
Save your compressed or uncompressed files to the Files app on your iOS device, share them to any app, or send them via AirDrop.
Zipped currently supports the following file types, with more to come: zip, .png, .jpg, .html, .pages, .docx, .pdf, .numbers, .xlsx, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .mp4, .mov, .aiff, .mp3, .wav, .psd, .caf, .md, .csv, .json, and .js.
Zipped should be available on the App Store [Direct Link] for 99 cents later today or by tomorrow at the latest.
1Password
You can now drag and drop your 1Password-generated username and password right into login fields while in Split View.
You can also drag and drop other items like credit card numbers and contact information from 1Password into web fields.
1Password is free on the App Store [Direct Link]. A subscription costs $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year.
Popular iPad painting and sketching app Procreate was today updated to version 4, offering an overhauled experience that provides improvements to the app's core elements and introduces support for iOS 11.
Procreate 4 adopts support for Metal 2, Swift 4, and Core Video, introducing a new Silica M painting engine that's been engineered with better color depth, more fluid and accurate painting, and faster performance.
A new brush engine and interface allows for new effects and settings, and there's a new, faster smudge tool for smudging and mixing paint along with a new wet painting experience. Blending colors in Procreate 4 is 250 times more accurate than in the previous-generation Procreate app.
Layer Masks have been added in Procreate 4 for non-destructive image modifications, and there are new Brush Blend Modes, with support for applying existing blend modes to any brush.
When using the Apple Pencil, there's a new Bleed setting, and the Tilt and Sketching brushes available with the accessory offer better realism and responsiveness.
With Drag and Drop support, multiple paintings can be dragged out of the app into another for sharing, and brushes and palettes can be dragged in. Layers can be dragged as individual images, and images taken directly from the web browser can be quickly dragged into Procreate for faster editing.
Other improvements include P3 Wide Color support, a new color interface to make it easier to switch between colors, a new interface for image adjustments, and a new gallery for managing artwork and interacting with the Files app.
Procreate 4 can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]
Following the launch of iOS 11, Apple today announced that it has increased the cellular over-the-air app download limit from 100 MB to 150 MB, meaning users can now download apps and app updates that are as large as 150 MB over a cellular connection.
Apps and app updates over 150 MB will require users to connect to Wi-Fi for content to be downloaded.
It's been awhile since Apple last updated the cellular download limit. The last increase was introduced in 2013, increasing the 50 MB limit to 100 MB.
Apple has limits in place to avoid causing customers to unwittingly use high amounts of data when downloading apps, but the introduction of unlimited plans from all of the major carriers in the United States has likely alleviated some of those concerns.
Developers often aim to keep their app sizes under the cellular limit whenever possible to prevent customers from having to hassle with connecting to Wi-Fi to download an app or app update.
Following the release of iOS 11, Apple today updated its iWork line of iOS apps with support for the new update. There are new versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote available today, all with new features like Drag and Drop support.
All three apps include a redesigned and updated document manager that makes it easier to access files stored in iCloud Drive or third-party cloud storage solutions. Along with the new document manager, the iWork apps now support Drag and Drop, allowing users to drag and drop text, images, links, and more between apps.
iWork documents can be accessed within the new Files app on the iPhone and the iPad, and with the new iPad Dock, it's easier than ever to use the multi-tasking Slide Over and Split View features.
There are new Unite, Intersect, Subtract, and Exclude commands to create shapes in each of the apps, and Align, Distribute, Flip Vertical and Flip Horizontal commands can be used to arrange objects. There's also a new "Break Apart" command for use with complex shapes from the shapes library.
In Pages specifically, there's a new option to select a paragraph of text with a triple tap gesture, and an improved PDF export feature now lets you view a document's table of contents in the sidebar in PDF viewer apps.
In Numbers, there are new date, time, and duration keyboards to make it easier to enter values, along with new "smart steppers" for entering the values more quickly.
All three of the iWork apps also have improvements to performance and stability and can be downloaded now from the App Store.
Update: Apple has also updated its iWork for Mac apps. Pages for Mac features improved PDF export and support for drag and drop rows in tables spanning multiple pages, while Keynote has been updated with the ability to filter object list by typing object names. All three apps, including Numbers, also feature performance and stability improvements.
iOS 11 is an update that brings a much improved user experience to the iPad, and front and center is a new dock. The new dock not only houses far more apps, much like the dock on the Mac, but it also much improves multitasking by allowing iPad users to quickly open apps and switch between them.
The dock is persistent and can be pulled up within any app at any time with an upwards swipe, a gesture that used to be reserved for the Control Center. A swipe up now opens up the dock, but you can still get to the Control Center and the App Switcher (now one and the same) by continuing to pull in an upwards direction. Swipe downwards to hide the dock.
Adding and Removing Apps on the Dock
There's only one step required to add an app to the dock. Simply hold a finger over any app on your display for a second and then drag it down to the dock. This will add the app's icon to the dock.
The dock can hold anywhere from 11 (iPad mini) to 15 (12.9-inch iPad Pro) apps in total on this side of the dock, more than double the number that fit in the dock in earlier versions of iOS.
Removing an app is done in the same way. Press and hold on the icon of the app you want to remove and then drag it up and off of the dock.
Hiding or Displaying Recently Used Apps
Along with the 11–15 apps you can add to the dock, there are three app slots reserved for your recently used apps, apps that pop up because of Handoff functionality, and apps that are suggested based on your app usage habits. Recently used apps and suggested apps can be turned off. Here's how:
Open the Settings app.
Select "General."
Choose "Multitasking & Dock."
Toggle off "Show Suggested and Recent Apps."
Launching Apps and Multitasking with the Dock
Launching an app is as simple as tapping it, and because the dock can be brought up within any app, it's also useful for switching between apps.
Switching between apps using the dock is done through bringing the dock up with a swipe within any app and then tapping another app.
Beyond simply switching between apps, the dock can be used with Split View and Slide Over multitasking. When an app is open, drag another app up from the dock to open a second app that is overlaid on the first. This isn't technically a Slide Over window -- it's just a pop up over the first app, but it can be used simultaneously with the app it overlays.
Convert the second app into a Slide Over multitasking window by swiping upwards at the top of the app on the gray line. From there, the Slide Over view can be pulled into a Split View by pulling the gray bar dividing the two apps to the left. You can switch between Slide Over and Split View by dragging the bar to the left or the right.
When using a multitasking view, you can switch between the two apps that are open by swiping to bring up the dock and then pulling a new app into one of the windows.
You can close one of the apps that's open by pulling the bar all the way to the left or the right of the screen, depending on which app you want to close.
Bringing Up App Files from the Dock
The iPad doesn't support 3D Touch, but a similar gesture can be used with the Files app on the dock. To access this feature, long press on the Files app to bring up a 3D Touch-style window.
After you press the Files app and the window is open, it'll stay open even after you move your finger. It lists all of your most recent files, which you can drag from the app without having to open it.
Accessing the Dock from a Keyboard
To bring up the dock when you have a physical keyboard like the Smart Keyboard connected, just press Command + Option + D.
Compatibility
While all iPads capable of running iOS 11 have access to the new dock, the split-screen drag and drop functionality is limited to iPads that have support for split screen functionality.
Slide Over, which allows you to interact with an app without quitting the one you have open, is available on the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, the fifth-generation iPad, and all iPad Pro models.
Split View, which is true multitasking and allows you to use two apps side by side, is available on the iPad mini 4, the iPad Air 2, the fifth-generation iPad, and all iPad Pro models.
Starting with iOS 11, Apple overhauled the way we interact with the iPad, introducing several features designed to make the iPad experience better mimic the way we use a Mac or a PC. Central among these new features is a revamped Dock that holds more apps, an improved app switcher, and most importantly, system-wide Drag and Drop.
With Drag and Drop, text, links, photos, files, and more can be transferred between one app and another without the need to use in-app Share Sheets. It's a great way to do things like add photos or links to an email, save PDFs or documents from an email to the Files app, share links with friends in Messages, and more.
Below, we'll walk you through the steps on how to use Drag and Drop and offer some examples of how it can be used in different apps.
How to Use Drag and Drop
Tap and hold on a link, text, a photo, or a file within any app on the iPad.
While maintaining a finger on the file in question, move your finger away to initiate a drag gesture.
You now have a file, link, or photo that can be dropped into any other app.
To open up another app, you can tap it from the Home screen, bring up the dock with a swipe, use the app switcher, or use a Split-View multitasking window. Dragging multiple files between apps is particularly useful with two apps open at once.
Continue dragging the file/link/photo into the other app.
How to Drag and Drop Multiple Files at Once
Drag and Drop works with more than one file at a time, so if you want to move multiple files to the Files app or drag multiple photos from the Photos app to another location on the iPad, you can do so with Drag and Drop.
Grab a file with a drag gesture (tap, hold, and pull away).
Keep your finger on the file.
With another finger or your other hand, simply tap additional files.
The new files will be added to the file under your first finger and you'll see a little blue badge letting you know how many files are being dragged.
Multiple files work just like a single file - open up another app to drop your content where it needs to go.
Drag and Drop Usage Examples
Because Drag and Drop is a system-wide feature on the iPad, you can drag all kinds of files between any app, just like you can do on a Mac or a PC. It makes moving content between apps so much simpler than iOS 10. Below are some of the ways it can be used:
Dragging photos from the Photos app to Mail or Messages
Dragging a link from Safari to Notes, Mail, or Messages
Transferring a photo from a web page in Safari to the Photos app
Copying a PDF from the Mail app to the Files app, Notes or another app
Dragging your location in Maps from the Maps app to Messages or Mail
Dragging a calendar event from the Calendar app to Mail or Messages
Dragging a contact from the Contacts app to Messages to share contact info with friends
Selecting a block of text and then transferring it from one app to another
Dragging an address from Maps to another app
Dragging a Reminder into Mail or Messages
Dragging an Apple News story into Mail or Messages to share a link
Move multiple apps on the Home screen into a folder with multi-drag
While Drag and Drop is a feature available anywhere on the iPad, third-party apps still need to implement support for it, so it may not be immediately available in all apps right when iOS 11 launches.
Drag and Drop on the iPhone
While Drag and Drop was primarily built for the iPad, there are a limited number of Drag and Drop features that also work on the iPhone.
You can use the multi-drag feature to drag more than one app from the Home screen into a folder or onto another screen, and you can drag and drop files between different folders in the Files app. Outside of these two use cases, there's no other Drag and Drop functionality available on the iPhone at this time.
With the launch of iOS 11 today, Apple has turned hundreds of millions of iPhones into augmented reality-capable devices thanks to the support of a new developer framework called ARKit. With this technology, iOS developers can more easily craft AR experiences for users on compatible iPhones and iPads, using each device's built-in cameras, processors, and motion sensors.
As of now, the first wave of these apps are available for you to download and test on the iOS 11 App Store. The first apps range from game updates to practical everyday tools and even apps that encourage a healthier lifestyle, with more refined experiences likely coming in the future once developers get a grasp on what users enjoy with the first wave of apps.
Note that to use ARKit-enabled apps on iOS 11 you must have an iOS device with an A9, A10, or A11 processor. This means ARKit apps can be launched on iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the upcoming iPhone X. For iPads, you can use the 9.7-inch iPad or the 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The older 9.7-inch model of the iPad Pro is compatible as well.
One you have iOS 11 installed on one of these devices, head over to the new App Store and check out some of the ARKit apps listed below to see how Apple's new augmented reality technology works in your own home.
- What's it about? Use swipes of your finger to split a colorful landscape and guide alien critters back to their spaceship, avoiding enemies and solving puzzles in the process.
- How's AR used? Scan a flat surface and then place a fully playable version of the main game into the real world, housed within a small white box.
- What's it about? Control an Imperial Knight war machine in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and fight the evil forces of Chaos through 170 single player missions using cannons, missiles, and thermal blasts to defeat your enemies.
- How's AR used? Drop your Imperial Knight from the main game into an AR "Photo Mode" to take snap shots of the war machine in the real world.
- What's it about? A farming simulation game focused on hatching eggs, building hen houses, hiring drivers, and researching advanced technologies to upgrade your egg farm. - How's AR used? Take a glimpse at your farm in AR with a "Farm To Table" picture-taking mode.
- What's it about? Build, decorate, paint, and create full train sets and then control characters from Thomas & Friends as you drive through your customized train set.
- How's AR used? Bring all of your creations into the real world with the app's AR mode, which places your train set on a flat surface so you can zoom in and around while still being able to interact with various tools and control characters.
On iPhone and iPad, the Control Center provides quick access to a host of useful features in iOS, regardless of whether you have an app open or not, or even whether your device is locked or not. The Control Center is also highly customizable, so you can choose what gets to live there and what doesn't.
Accessing Control Center in iOS is designed to be easy. On an iPad with a Home button, simply double-tap the Home button; on iPhone 8 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of the screen; and on a 2018 iPad Pro or iPhone X and later, swipe down from the upper right corner of the screen.
Connectivity Controls
The Control Center is made up of several panels containing associated functions. The first pane on the left allows you to quickly enable or disable the wireless connectivity functions of your device, including Airplane mode, cellular data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Simply tap any of the buttons to enable or disable the related feature.
If instead you press and hold on this panel, it will take over the screen and expand to reveal two more buttons: AirDrop and Personal Hotspot. From here, if you press and hold the AirDrop button you can opt to turn off AirDrop or set it to receive files either from Everyone or Contacts Only. Likewise, if you press and hold the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth buttons, you can access a list of available wireless networks and Bluetooth devices, respectively, any of which you can connect to with a tap.
Audio Playback
The second large panel at the top-right corner of the Control Center contains your media playback options, including the name of the currently selected track, album name, and buttons to play/pause and skip forward/go backward a track. There's also an AirPlay button in the top-right corner of the panel which can you can press and hold to expand.
In this expanded view you'll see a track scrubber that you can drag with your finger to advance the current track or return to an earlier point in it. If you press the larger AirPlay button, you can access a list of available AirPlay-compatible devices and top on one to connect to it.
Orientation Lock, Do Not Disturb, and Screen Mirroring
Below the two big panels in the Control Center are three options that always appear in the Control Center. The padlock button lets you enable/disable the Screen Orientation Lock, while the crescent moon turns Do Not Disturb on and off. You can also press and hold the Do Not Disturb button to schedule the mode for 1 hour, Until this evening, or Until I leave this location.
The oblong Screen Mirroring button provides quick access to a list of devices on the same Wi-Fi network that support AirPlay video. Using this button, you can mirror the entire screen of your iOS device on an Apple TV or AirPlay 2-compatible smart TV, just by tapping it in the list.
Brightness and Volume Sliders
The Brightness and Volume sliders are more useful than they first appear. Aside from letting you set the screen brightness by dragging the level up and down, you can press and hold the Brightness slider to reveal more buttons that let you enable or disable Dark Mode, Night Shift, and True Tone.
If you're listening to audio on your iOS device using Apple AirPods Pro, you can also press and hold the Volume slider to control Transparency and Noise Cancelation functions independently.
Customizing the Control Center
The buttons that appear in Control Center (below the ones we've already described) can vary, because you can add, remove, and organize them in the way you want through the Settings app. Simply follow these steps.
How to Add Controls to Control Center on iPhone and iPad
Launch the Settings app.
Tap Control Center.
Tap Customize Controls.
Scroll down to More Controls.
Tap on the "+" sign to the left of a control to add it to Control Center.
How to Remove Controls From Control Center on iPhone and iPad
Launch the Settings app.
Tap Control Center.
Tap Customize Controls.
Scroll down to the Include section.
Tap the minus ("-") sign to the left of a control to remove it from Control Center.
How to Organize Controls in Control Center on iPhone and iPad
Launch the Settings app.
Tap Control Center.
Tap Customize Controls.
Tap the three lines to the right of a control and drag its position up or down.
Note that the default controls in the upper portion of Control Center, such as the brightness and volume sliders, cannot be removed or reorganized.
List of Default Controls
AirDrop
Airplane Mode
Bluetooth
Cellular Data
Personal Hotspot
Wi-Fi
Music
Orientation Lock
Do Not Disturb
Brightness
Night Shift
Volume
AirPlay Mirroring
List of Customizable Controls
Accessibility Shortcuts
Alarm
Apple TV Remote
Calculator
Camera
Do Not Disturb While Driving
Flashlight
Guided Access
Home
Low Power Mode
Magnifier
Notes
Screen Recording
Stopwatch
Text Size
Timer
Voice Memos
Wallet
Once you've organized the buttons in the lower portion of the Control Center, try the same press-and-hold gesture on them and you'll typically be able to access more granular controls.
Press and hold the Camera button, for example, and you'll see options to Take Selfie, Record Video, Take Portrait, and Take Portrait Selfie. Similarly, press and hold the Wallet button to view a list of transactions for a particular Apple Pay card, or view your Last Transaction. And if you add the Notes button, you can even scan documents with your iPhone in three quick steps.
Apple made waves last year when it completely redesigned how the lock screen functions on iOS 10 by removing the iPhone's well-known "Slide to Unlock" instruction from the screen. The improvements allowed for a more seamless unlocking experience on iPhones that supported Raise to Wake and Touch ID, and with iOS 11 that process isn't changing (although there are still ways to get around it thanks to Accessibility options).
The main change in iOS 11's lock screen is how the new software deals with notifications and the methods you'll have to go through in finding a push notification you might have missed.
Awaken your iPhone by using Raise to Wake or tapping the lock button.
Swipe up from the middle of the screen to find a list of notifications, and continue scrolling for older notifications.
On any one notification, swipe left-to-right to open it directly.
Or, swipe right-to-left to "view" or "clear" it.
Accessing the New Cover Sheet
Unlock your iPhone.
Swipe down from the top edge of the screen to bring up the all-new Cover Sheet.
You can interact with notifications as before, and 3D Touch the "x" to clear them all.
Swipe left-to-right (avoiding notifications) to enter the Today section and find your widgets.
Back on the notification screen, swipe right-to-left to enter the Camera.
Swipe up from the very bottom edge of the screen or press the home button to dismiss the Cover Sheet.
With Cover Sheet, the "Notification Center" of iOS 10 has been replaced with a screen that looks visually just like your lock screen, and functions essentially the same way. Notifications are displayed in reverse chronological order, starting with the latest unseen notifications, continuing with "Earlier Today" if you have any missed notifications from the past 24 hours, and then extending into previous days.
Those who purchase an iPhone X later in the year should also note that the redesigned iPhone will house Cover Sheet in its own unique area. When the iPhone X is unlocked, instead of swiping down from the top edge of the smartphone, you'll have to swipe down from the top left ear to bring up your notifications.
Apple today uploaded several new tutorial videos designed to teach users about lesser-known features on the iPad Pro, including some features that were just introduced in iOS 11.
Apple's new videos cover copy and pasting across devices, retouching a photo using the Pixelmator app for iPad, and converting handwritten notes to text in the Notes app. Apple's Pixelmator tutorial video is the first time the company has released a tutorial for a third-party app.
Converting handwritten notes to text is a feature that was just introduced in iOS 11, but copy and pasting across devices is something that's been around since iOS 10. Pixelmator's retouching tools have also been available since before iOS 11, but the app will undoubtedly gain support for iOS 11 features like Drag and Drop.
Apple has released several tutorial-style videos in the past, teaching users how to use the camera features in the iPhone 7 and iOS 11 iPad Pro features like multi-tasking and using the new Dock.
Popular to-do app Things 3 was today updated to version 3.2, adding full support for iOS 11 and watchOS 4 along with a few new key features like Siri integration and support for Drag and Drop.
With Siri integration, it's now possible to interact directly with Things on iOS devices and the Apple Watch using Apple's built-in personal assistant. Siri can do things like create a new task, add reminders, search for tags, and open up a specific list in the Things app.
On the iPad, Things is gaining support for the Drag and Drop feature introduced in iOS 11. iPad users will be able to drop content into Things from other apps as new to-dos or in the notes section of existing to-dos.
A third major new feature coming to Things is support for third-party app link detection. Links from third-party apps will now be tappable, so you can link to a file in other apps like Evernote or Ulysses and then get back to those files with a tap.
Things 3 can be downloaded from the App Store. The iPad version is priced at $19.99 [Direct Link], while the iPhone version (which includes Apple watch support) is priced at $9.99. [Direct Link]
Alongside the new iOS 11, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11 updates, Apple has released Xcode 9, the latest version of the Xcode Mac app that lets developers create apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.
Xcode 9 introduces Swift 4 and all of the SDKs necessary to develop apps for iOS 11, watchOS 4, tvOS 11, and macOS High Sierra, including the new Core ML framework for machine learning and ARKit for augmented reality.
Xcode 9 includes a new structure-based editor with native Markdown support and faster navigation through code, plus it includes built-in refactoring that works across Swift, Objective-C, C, C++, Interface Builder, and more.
Faster search and wireless debugging for iOS and tvOS devices have been added, as have new debuggers for Metal. iOS playground templates now work in both Xcode and Swift Playgrounds, and Xcode server is built in, so there's no need to install macOS server.
There's a new source control navigator with integrated support for GitHub for better collaborative code management, and Simulator has been updated to behave more like a real device. It's also able to simulate multiple devices at once.
A full and extensive list of everything new in Xcode 9 is available from Apple's developer site, and an overview is also available on Apple's Xcode site. Many developers will already be familiar with the changes introduced as Xcode 9 has been in testing alongside iOS 11 and the other software updates since June.
Xcode can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Swift Playgrounds, the Apple-designed iPad app that aims to teach children and adults of all ages how to code using the Swift programming language, was today updated to version 1.6 alongside the release of iOS 11.
The new Swift Playgrounds update introduces a new Augmented Reality challenge that uses ARKit in iOS 11 to showcase Byte's virtual world within the real world. Byte is a Swift Playgrounds character that's used to guide students through the coding process.
Swift Playgrounds now allows students to access the iPad camera in their code, and errors that are in code are more clearly explained for a better understanding of the mistakes that have been made.
Swift Playgrounds can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Apple today released Safari 11.0 for macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan. The update adds new media-related features, plus improvements to privacy, compatibility, and security.
Notably, in Safari 11, the web browser blocks videos with audio from automatically playing on most websites. Other new features are outlined in our macOS High Sierra roundup.
Stops media with audio from automatically playing on most websites
Adds the ability to configure Reader, content blockers, page zoom, and auto-play settings on a per-website basis, or for all websites
Improves AutoFill accuracy from Contacts cards
Includes updated media controls for HTML video and audio
Enhances performance and efficiency
Safari 11 was first introduced in macOS High Sierra, which will be publicly released on September 25.
Safari 11 is available as a free update within the Mac App Store.
Apple's TestFlight app designed to allow testers to install and beta test apps ahead of their release was today updated to version 2.0.0, introducing an overhauled user interface that's been updated for iOS 11.
TestFlight now features an iOS 11-style design with bold headlines, more white space, clear sections for apps in testing and apps previously tested, and app pages that more closely resemble App Store app pages.
Apple has added a new welcome screen that appears when opening the TestFlight app for the first time after updating, and there's a new 3D Touch option for redeeming a code or updating all TestFlight apps from the Home screen, a handy new addition.
On the iPad, Apple has added support for Split View multitasking when using TestFlight alongside another app. Along with the new app design, there's also a brand new app icon with a simpler design that does away with the box surrounding the TestFlight propeller.
TestFlight can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Alongside today's release iOS 11, Apple updated its Apple Music app for Android devices to introduce feature parity with the new version of Apple Music in the iOS update.
Android users can now create an Apple Music profile to follow friends and see what they've been listening to. The same feature was introduced in Apple Music on iOS devices with iOS 11.
Today's update brings a new Recently Played Widget, designed to let Android users show and play music on the home screen of their device.
There's also support for Voice Search, so Android users can hold down the home button or say "Ok Google" to search for and play Music, and there are new home screen shortcuts built in. A tap and hold on the Apple Music icon will play Beats 1 or start a search.
Following the launch of iOS 11, Apple today 
Swift Playgrounds, the Apple-designed iPad app that aims to teach children and adults of all ages how to code using the Swift programming language, was today updated to version 1.6 alongside the release of iOS 11.
Apple today released Safari 11.0 for macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan. The update adds new media-related features, plus improvements to privacy, compatibility, and 
Alongside today's 
